Elevate February 27

one of the verses that jumped out at me in the book of James is chapter 5 verse 17. It says that Elijah was a person just like me. And when he prayed earnestly that the rain wouldn't fall the rain didn't fall. And 3 1/2 years later when he prayed the rain would return, the rain came back.

Can I do that? Are you serious? He was just like me?

So we took a brief overview of that story from 1 Kings 17-18. And what we see is that politically and spiritually things had taken a very ugly turn in Israel. Elijah prayed that the rain would stop, and God answered his prayer. God then protected him and fed him. God moved him into a small apartment and made sure that everyone in the house was fed. God answered another prayer of Elijah and raised the widows son from the dead. God performed a miraculous sign and showed the foolishness of following after another god. God heard Elijah"s prayer and sent the rain back again.

That was very brief, but not meant to be flippant.

Elijah was just like me. He had the same opportunities I have to connect with God. He clearly understood what God was saying and took the opportunity to pray God's plan back to God.
Why does God need us to do that?
It's very hard to explain the why, but we do know the when.

In the garden, with Adam and eve God shows us the pattern of how he works. He chose to make Adam and Eve and managers, overseers, administrators, caretakers of his creation. Their job was to represent God on the earth. Their authority and position was initiated and maintained by their relationship with God. And wherever they were seen they re-presented God.
Every day/throughout the day God communicated with Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve had the opportunity to ask for and receive whatever they needed in order to represent God, and manage God's creation.

At salvation God does more than just make sure we can get to heaven. God seeks to restore us back to our original calling. He wants each one of us as humans to re- present him wherever we are. What we need to administer and manage his creation is what he wants to give us so that everyone within his creation can see him clearly.

Elijah is just like us. Elijah understood his position, his job, and God's plan. What Elijah prayed for God wanted to do, and Elijah knew this because he knew God. One of the many ways Satan has waged battle against Christians is by limiting our concept of salvation, and therefore greatly reducing our influence and representation of God to his creation.
Limiting our prayers to only what we think we want to get by for the day, is a practical result of the enemies attack on our understanding. God wants to restore, wants to provide, wants to resurrect, and wants to revive his creation back to himself. He also wants us as his representatives to ask for it.
just like Elijah did.